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Oct. 9 Brett Anderson, Seth Smith postgame interview

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Q. Brett, what does it do for you when your defense picks you up like it did, especially the first two games it wasn't that great. What does that do for you?

BRETT ANDERSON: You can go out and pitch to contact, and not worry about the results as much. Coco set the tone with robbing the homer. You don't expect that when you're pitching. But he was tremendous. The guys up the middle were tremendous. And Seth made a play at the end, and it was fun to pitch in front of.

Q. Could you talk about your feeling, this was your first postseason start. And a lot of people viewed you as a giant question mark, as far as how healthy you were. Were you nervous at all, did you feel fully confident?

BRETT ANDERSON: No, I wasn't nervous, I had some adrenaline early with the crowd and was able to have a good first inning and go from there. And kind of fought myself innings 3 through 5, and was falling behind, but I made pitches when I had to. And probably had my best inning in the 6th, so was able to finish on a strong note.

Q. Bob said that you had a prolonged discussion about whether or not you were going to come out of the game. Can you take us through a little bit of that, what you were feeling.

BRETT ANDERSON: My oblique wasn't a hundred percent by any means, you're in the heat of the moment and you want to stay in there. You can see both sides of it.

Our bullpen has been tremendous. And they shut it down. You like to stay in, being a competitor, but you can see both sides of it, and fortunately it worked out today.

Q. Jim Leyland said Coco's catch sort of set the whole tempo and jacked you guys up. What did you feel when he ‑‑ as a pitcher standing there watching it, when he goes over the fence, grabs it?

BRETT ANDERSON: You see him hit it and you put your head down, you think you gave up a home run. And it kick‑starts you to make pitches and get through the innings, and we scored early and set the tone from there. I was able to pitch and let my defense make plays behind me. It was a good overall team effort.

Q. This was your first season as a DH, and tonight was your first postseason home run, how did that feel?

SETH SMITH: Great.

Q. Want to elaborate a little more?

SETH SMITH: Sure, awesome. I don't know. I'm just glad it's something to help the team. Brett was up there doing great. We already had a run, and we didn't even need my homer, so I don't even know why I'm here, but I appreciate the invite.

Q. You came in with good numbers against Sanchez, is he a good matchup for you, do you feel confident against him?

SETH SMITH: Yeah, he's right‑handed and that's good. I don't know what it is. There's no secret to my success against him. It's just baseball, and some guys you see better than others. And maybe my swing has been in a good place every time I faced him, I don't know.

Q. One of the problems about having the day off in the playoffs, it gives media a lot of time to talk about things. But there was some talk about Jonny starting tonight. Did Bob tell you that you were going to start or just assumed?

SETH SMITH: I assumed I was going to start. We've been consistent, and I didn't feel like they were going to change now.

Q. Both of you, you guys finished the season really strong. How much did the crowd really help you guys set the tone to start off the game with the momentum, if at all?

BRETT ANDERSON: Yeah, there hasn't been a postseason game here in a little while. The fans were tremendous against the last series in Texas. They came out in full force from the get‑go, and got jacked up and adrenaline flowing. And started us on the top half of the first, and we were able to score in the bottom half. The fans kept us in it the whole game. And hopefully that will happen the next two games, as well.

SETH SMITH: Good job, Brett.

Q. Brett, Seth said his home run, you didn't need it, but what did it do for you?

BRETT ANDERSON: It separated it. You can go out there and pitch to even more contact than I was before, knowing that a solo home run is not going to tie the game. And you try to be as efficient as possible, and get early contact. And we were able to do that and turn it over to our bullpen, and like I said, they dominated for three innings, and it was a good overall team win. And hopefully we have two more in us.